• Critically analyse the power of images as a ‘weapon’ used by ISIS.
Media Logics and Politics
• Daisy political ad, 1964 - The ad was so controversial that it was only shown once
• A year after the JFK Cuban Missile crisis
• Lyndon B Johnson commissioned attack ad on Barry Goldwater, the first of its kind
(attack ad), respected bipartisan conservative
• Close race became a landslide for LBJ
• Why was the ad so powerful ? Brings the reality of nuclear war home, when someone
agrees to be willing to engage in nuclear war, they must also accept the fact of that
being brought him. Draws on American concerns of family, safety etc.
• This ad demonstrates that reality in politics is a matter of demonstration. Visual
media plays to the emotions, especially with images of violence. Makes us change
our choices as viewers or political activists.
• Media Logic : Dominant process or format that shapes production of mass media
content
• e.g, tabloidzation or ‘dumbing down’ by doing that they are simplifying the terms of
debate. This attempt to reach a broader public, brings about a lot of dumbing down
across the spectrum
• e.g mediaziation of religion
• ‘If it bleeds, it leads’ hierarchy of reporting violence. Violent stories are mostly the
leading stories.
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, Thursday, 24 May 2018
Media relationship to Terrorism
• Terrorists have taken on media logics
• ‘We are in a battle, and mora than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of
the m media’
• ‘Terrorists want a lot of people watching , not a lot of people dead’ Brian Jenkins 1975
• Terrorists have been reliant on mass media
• While terrorists did relay on mass media, however, there has been a shift in change.
- e.g 2001-2006: al Qaeda tapes/ uploads broadcast by Al-Jazeera. They realised they
were beginning to damage their image, they became more of a liability by being the
voice of Bin Laden. So they abandoned this relationship.
- Social media may be changing this (Klausen 2014) Now mass- media rely on terrorist
social media
- Social media is so devoted to reporting on terrorism, they have become obsessed
with mining information from Isis.
- Shift in the media relation to terrorism, ‘evolution of terrorists’. There was once a time
that terrorists were seen as an ‘other or them’. This idea of foreign invaders
implementing violence, for example, 9/11. There has been a major shift to homegrown
terrorism, individuals that have grown up within their country of origin . The logic of
terrorism has moved more inwards, bringing about the concern of lone wolves. These
individuals are making their own personal choices, sometimes without any contact
with terrorist networks.
- The impact of terrorism is largely determined by our response to it.
- ‘The mirror effect’ terrorist commit atrocities, but they expect societies to respond with
equal or even greater measure. This idea that they are looking for the societies to be
mirrored.
- How should media respond to images of terrorist violence with groups like Isis and the
AQ?
2
, Thursday, 24 May 2018
Images as weapons of war: representation, mediation and interpretation ( Ben
O’Loughlin)
• ( Abu Ghraib or the bagdad central prison, it had become a notorious, when the
unites states took the prison for its own holding area of detainees- it was said that US
had committed a series of human rights violations against details in Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq.)
• In December 2004 several jihadist websites reported that a letter from ‘Fatima’
prisoner in Abu Ghraib had sparked an insurgency attack on the prison.
• Fatima’s letters tells us of the repeated rape suffered by the author along with 13
other girls. Although the US State Department continues to deny the validity of the
letter, although the US militaries own investigation of the scandal, the Tacuba Report,
admits to multiple abuses including rape.
• Considering something that was merely a letter, had sparked such vigorous debate
among online communities and triggered an attack by insurgents on a Coalition run
prison compound, seems a throwback in todays media ecology
• The letter calls on readers to imagine, and provides no photographs or videos still.
Regardless of the authenticity of the letter, which has been question, this
communication raises several questions.
• Under what conditions are such messages disseminated ( spread, circulated )and
trusted ?
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